Intro for March 20, 2026

Dear Gossips, 

An hour after BTS released their new album, ARIRANG, last night (at noon in Korea), RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook went live on YouTube for a Studio Notes session to talk about the new tracks. At one point in the conversation, the members remarked on the reach of Korean culture over the last decade, and Kpop Demon Hunters came up when they shared that Jung Kook was obsessed with it and cried when Jinu died.

Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, who co-directed and co-wrote the film, have both confirmed that BTS inspired the story. Maggie went to see them at the Rose Bowl, amazed at the sight of 50,000 singing in Korean in Los Angeles, and Chris has shared how moved he was during the pandemic when so many people joined the band for their virtual concerts and the way “Dynamite” uplifted us at a time when we felt so hopeless. Is it fate that BTS’s comeback is happening the same week that Kpop Demon Hunters made history with two Oscar wins?

The parallels don’t stop there. BTS was underestimated, initially at home in Korea and then by western media and cultural gatekeepers and became a phenomenon in spite of the skepticism. They achieved this by betting on themselves and on each other, holding onto the faith that there was an audience out there waiting and eager to meet them. As a result of this unshakable confidence, BTS has been rewarded in all the ways – not that they need the respect of those who doubted but those same people are lining up now for the scraps of shine that BTS is generous enough to distribute.

As for Kpop Demon Hunters, well, nobody expected the movie to become the juggernaut it is now. The most watched movie in Netflix history. The soundtrack, the merch deals, the awards – Netflix has a Disney-style franchise with this IP but they didn’t know it from the jump. For creatives of colour, whose stories are often dismissed and undervalued, of course it’s painful to be doubted, to have to repeatedly convince people that your story will find an audience.

But like BTS, Maggie’s tenacity paid off. In his latest Puck newsletter, Matthew Belloni reports that Maggie and Chris’s initial deal was for one movie only. Which, ironically, has now given them SO MUCH LEVERAGE because of course Netflix wants – needs – to turn this into a whole Kpop Demon Hunters Universe, and they need Maggie and Chris more than Maggie and Chris need them. The runaway success of KPDH has made it so that so many more opportunities have been made available to them, which strengthened their negotiating position.

Which means that… well… Netflix gave them the sweetest deal. Per Puck:

“…the Kang and Appelhans contracts look more like TV showrunner overall deals than one-off film pacts. Both are exclusive to Netflix for about five years, and together they are making about $10 million annually during the term, guaranteed, per sources. Both Kang and Appelhans also scored a share of ancillary revenue from the franchise, including merchandising. And that starts now, so it includes all those makeup kits and glow sticks branded with the first film. They don’t share in the music revenue from the first movie—Sony made that deal with Republic Records, which released the soundtrack—but Kang and Appelhans will participate in music money on the sequel.”

Let this be a lesson for everyone. On the creative side, don’t give up on your own stories. And, well, on the corporate side… diversity benefits everyone but… um… what happens when you don’t invest when you should is that you end up paying that much more when you finally figure out what’s good.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey